Emilie Gordenker (Director of the Van Gogh Museum):
‘The coronavirus crisis is terrible for everyone, and of course also for the cultural sector. We miss our international visitors, but it is good to see that many Dutch visitors have found their way to the museum this year.
Reflecting on 2021, I am hugely grateful to my dedicated colleagues; they have worked tirelessly on many highlights, including successful exhibitions such as Here to Stay: A decade of remarkable acquisitions and their stories and The Potato Eaters: Mistake or Masterpiece?
We are all looking forward to 2022, a year in which we will hope to be able to receive Dutch and international visitors back to the museum in good health’.
During the past year, the Van Gogh Museum was closed to the public for a total of 24 weeks. The museum was closed for 19 weeks in 2020, when it received 517,000 visitors.
This year, most visitors were from the Netherlands (21%), followed by France (18%), Italy (15%) and Germany (12%).
Hope
In July, the museum welcomed its 2 millionth Instagram follower. Gordenker: ‘Thanks to our online content, people can visit us even if they are unable to come to the museum in person. Very much in the spirit of Vincent, it allows us to offer inspiration, beauty and hope’.
Looking ahead
A number of new exhibitions are planned for 2022.
The current exhibition The Potato Eaters: Mistake or Masterpiece? is on display until 13 February 2022.
Van Gogh and the Olive Groves (11 March to 12 June 2022), about Van Gogh’s love of the Southern French landscape. The exhibition reunites 15 paintings of olive groves, including several remarkable loans from home and abroad.
Andries Bonger and Odilon Redon, Kindred Spirits (spring 2022), about collector Andries Bonger and artist Odilon Redon’s special friendship and personal exchange.
Colour as Language (20 May to 4 September 2022), the first exhibition in the Netherlands of works by the recently deceased artist Etel Adnan alongside works by Vincent van Gogh.
Gustav Klimt [working title] (7 October 2022 to 8 January 2023), about Gustav Klimt’s oeuvre and what inspired the renowend Austrian artist. This is the first time that dozens of works by Klimt will be exhibited on such a large scale in the Netherlands.